How long to wait for the bite to turn on ?

[medicineman]

Curious about how long to wait wait for fish to start biting before moving ? I have read many reports where people say that although they are marking fish, they move to another location after determining that the fish aren't biting. I find it hard to leave fish to find fish, but we honestly fished Sunday in one area for 8 hours (with various live bait) before finally catching one fish. We were marking a good number of fish, and actually could see on the sonar several coming up to the bait to "take a look", but they weren't biting.

Are the fish just more lethargic and less likely to feed in colder water ? I see some members reporting that they are having luck jigging and trolling with artificial lures. I just assumed live bait would always be the best way to go, but I am wondering if for some reason they need the extra "stimulation" from jigging right now?

Thanks !

[Gator]

That's the million dollar question. When to move?? Honestly, I don't know....I just give up after exhausting my efforts and move to another spot. I think that the jig is smaller and the fish are focused on small bait in the colder months. I'd be willing to bet that a jig tipped with a small peanut would produce some nice fish. As far as extrastimulation......I fished Saturday and Sunday with good results using a jig and a bucktail. My presentaion was very "short". I was just bumping the jig and they crushed it. I've noticed too that sometimes they want that jig to jump 2 or 3 feet before they eat it. I learn something new every time I go fishing. I love it.

[medicineman]

Thanks Gator !  You are right- it IS fun trying to figure these creatures out.  Appreciate the info.

[drag4striper]

Couple of hour's is about all I can stand in one place without action. I will come back later and try again though. That's a good idea about tipping with peanuts Gator. I had already frozen some from the fall just for that purpose. Also some larger gizz for cut bait.

If the back yard will ever dry out so I can get the dang boat out I am going to try it.

[johnr]

I give it a little bit, maybe 40 minutes and if there is no action I am moving. I have a milk run of spots that I like to hit, depending on time of year, time of day, weather, water temps and bait. Typically one or two will produce, and then I can identify a pattern and fish it till it turns off. Typically though, a pattern will be biting lake-wide, for an extended period of time. In contrast, "spots" will turn on and off and you just gotta be there if that's how you want to fish.

I've found a handful of very consistent patterns on this lake based on the above criteria. I tend to use these general patterns to nail down a more specific pattern when I hit the water.

As an example, I like to search for 46-48 degree water in main lake creeks during late Jan through the end of Feb. Where I locate this water, I search out isolated patches of trees in 25-50 feet of water. All the better if the trees are at the end of a point, cut mouth, feeder creek mouth, hump or isolated on a mud bottom. In these areas I will send down my secret jig, and search for fish stuck to the bottom inside and along the edges of the trees. When found, they will eat. After I catch a few, I move to the next creek and repeat. Fish of all types will be taken following this pattern: Stripers, white perch, yellow perch, LMB, SMB and crappie.

[medicineman]

Awesome info- thanks !

[coheasion]

Feb 9, 2016 11:46:32 GMT -5 johnr said:

I give it a little bit, maybe 40 minutes and if there is no action I am moving. I have a milk run of spots that I like to hit, depending on time of year, time of day, weather, water temps and bait. Typically one or two will produce, and then I can identify a pattern and fish it till it turns off. Typically though, a pattern will be biting lake-wide, for an extended period of time. In contrast, "spots" will turn on and off and you just gotta be there if that's how you want to fish.

I've found a handful of very consistent patterns on this lake based on the above criteria. I tend to use these general patterns to nail down a more specific pattern when I hit the water.

As an example, I like to search for 46-48 degree water in main lake creeks during late Jan through the end of Feb. Where I locate this water, I search out isolated patches of trees in 25-50 feet of water. All the better if the trees are at the end of a point, cut mouth, feeder creek mouth, hump or isolated on a mud bottom. In these areas I will send down my secret jig, and search for fish stuck to the bottom inside and along the edges of the trees. When found, they will eat. After I catch a few, I move to the next creek and repeat. Fish of all types will be taken following this pattern: Stripers, white perch, yellow perch, LMB, SMB and crappie.

That's a gold mine right there!!  Just make sure you have a lot of jigs

[Pete D.]

Depends on the time of year and species at hand.

For lake striper, in the spring/fall if I don't get a bite in one to two passes while trolling, regardless of what the graph says, I'm out. If I am catching all punks, I'm out. If I start catchin' catfish, I'm out. If the fish look like straight lines on the graph the fish are inactive (I'm out!). If it looks like this, most of the time you are wasting your time.

But, if you can put out enough frisky baits to simulate a school of bait, you can sometimes trigger a bite. Lots of work for little yield. I wanna see this!!!













You see that on there, and you ARE going to catch fish............


For catfish in the warmer months I typically anchor down and fish a spot for 45-60mins. This creates a scent trail with cut bait, and since the fish are more active they are on the prowl. They catch the scent trail and they have 10 pieces of shad, cut eel, or live bream to pick from. If I am getting no action, or one rod (out of 8-10) tapping around like a baby is pecking at it for a half hour, it drives me insane and we must move.

For cats in the winter, they are not anywhere near as active. They tend to hunker down into a deep hole and lazily hang out. Drop a piece of bait in that hole within sniffin range, and BAM, you got a big girl on the line. Since you have to drop the baits pretty much in the faces of the beast, if I don't get a bite in 15mins. or so, I will reel up all the rods about 10-15ft. and wait again. After doing this a time or two I roll out.

[seaduck]

Nice pics Pete. I like the separation with the chirp.

[Pete D.]

Feb 9, 2016 20:16:13 GMT -5 seaduck said:

Nice pics Pete. I like the separation with the chirp.

Thanks. These chirp shots were before I got the TM150. The TM150 is amazing and gives stunning target separation!! It has a bey low Q factor and will give better results even when running the standard broadband fixed frequency.